bobbythekidd wrote:I love these non-stories.
...it's funny to see otherwise pompous people get revealed as simple peons...
I was sitting in Dulles one afternoon on waiting to head home, and sat down in a row of chairs along a wall...the only place I could find an outlet to plugin my laptop and phone...
...about 15 min. later another gentleman came along and sat a couple seats away, then got up and plugged in a phone. When he did, he accidentally knocked my converter/plug out of it's outlet, and immediately plugged it back in then faced me and almost hysterically began apologizing. I looked up, said, "Hey, no problem", then went back to work. The man, continued apologizing to me, repeating over and over how sorry he was. It was at that moment I recognized the man as a well-known, respected Congressman. Again, I reiterated, "It's Okay". He finished by saying he was "...really sorry..." then sat down. I was more than a little distracted by the Congressman's reaction, but tried to keep working. While I worked, I was listening to the background noise, at the time on the "gate" television, CNN was broadcasting a story about a noteworthy international incident that had taken place earlier in the week...and had been discussed and broadcast on most major media outlets for several days.
About 4-5min into the broadcast, the woman who had accompanied the man (they both appeared to be in their 60's...so I assumed [later confirmed] were man and wife) began commenting on the news report, making somewhat superficial comments about the "audacity" of one of the governments, and "seriousness" of the situation. The Congressman continued the conversation, sounding as though he had been completely unaware of the situation, and made several trite comments validating the woman's observations.
Over the next 30 minutes, I listened to the two talk about the talking head news reports as if they had been living in a vacuum over the past week, and further, had political grasp bordering a trailer park resident's.
I won't mention the Congressman's name, because since that date, I've had similar encounters with two other elected officials, of both parties, but I came away with one conclusion...
...most politicians live in a bubble, and beyond what they are exposed to by staff, lobbyists and routine (edited) statistical briefings, have nary a clue as to what happens in the real world. The modern politician is, more often than not, of average intelligence, whose principal attributes are a clean record, a desire for fame and power, and a great memory to store what their handlers "feed" them. The days of the Great Thinker/Statesman intellectual (in the U.S.) are over.
IMHO
Yeah, they're a bunch of coddled children of millionaires... this is news..?